Early on, there is a scene in Hitman 2 where we see the genetically
engineered assassin, 47, in plain clothes, outside of his trademark suit
and praying for redemption for the sins he has committed. It's a great
touch to the overall narrative because it illustrates character growth
in someone who found out he was but one of many identical assassin
replicates; the 47th one to be exact. So the story begins with 47
confiding his past to Padre Vittorio. But the skeletons that 47 tried
to lock up in his closet eventually come out to find him and the ensuing
story has 47 trading with his former employers to rescue his friend.

The original Hitman title was critically acclaimed on the PC. Despite
suffering some debilitating flaws, it was intriguing and the plot
elements really leant meaning to tie the whole corpus together. The
sequel is much more elaborate, both in the planning and the action, but
most importantly in the setup. Some assassinations take not one, but
two levels for you to even get remotely close to the target. In that
elaborative scheming, however, the developers have truly outdone
themselves. Some of the planned assassinations are immensely clever.
One target is scheduled to go in for heart surgery and 47 can
potentially position himself to ensure the heart (and some other body
part) gets a heavy makeover.

In close contact with you on the field now is Diana, who makes a return
to help 47 get himself up on his feet. Because 47 is such a cause
célèbre these days, he gets all the tough assignments from the Agency.
These employers are always vague. John Mullins from Soldier of Fortune
worked for one simply called The Shop. You'd think people with
multi-million dollar Swiss accounts could be a little more creative.
Before each mission, Diana ensures that 47 gets all the GPS data he
needs, including videos and photographs of the target. Like most things
in life, they never go as planned but Diana's close contact on the radio
ensures 47 is never out of the loop. One early assassination 47 makes
involves a room full of generals but no positive ID. As the clock winds
down, Diana is frantically checking a database and detail by detail,
you'll be able to narrow down the target. The tension is nail-biting in
that instance.

A good, clean and professional hit, the developers claim, will leave
nothing but a dead target and a silent escape. This was something that
wasn't rewarded enough in the original Hitman but is now duly noted
through grants of style points. Disguises are a necessary requisite to
achieve this. Not only do you have to ensure your attire is correct but
your weapon is too. Or in some cases, where you'll be frisked, being
unarmed is the best solution. Creative use of weapons, from kitchen
knives strewn about to poison can help as well.

For those who are starting to feel a little worried, Hitman 2 is not an
exclusive exercise in sneaking. It's still an action game and where
stealthy quiet approaches fail, or more likely, go horribly wrong,
shameless violence can cap off most missions with a resounding
exclamation mark. On easier levels, Hitman 2 doesn't punish the gun
blazing 47s at all and you could, for all intents and purposes, murder,
maim and kill every living thing between you and the final target.
There are some built-in exceptions. One mission tasks you to
simultaneously kill two people. Another target, if jumped upon with a
melee weapon, will challenge you to a duel. There are as many outcomes
as there are paths to achieving your mission in Hitman 2.

Another offshoot in Hitman 2 is weapon collecting. Before 47 embarks on
his missions, he is headquartered in Sicily where he maintains his
growing arsenal of weapons. Weapons acquired on the field can be taken
back home and used on another mission. You literally have a trophy case
of guns at your disposal. Usually, the Agency is kind enough to
discretely drop off hardware required for you to complete your mission.
Sniper rifles or car bombs are usually hidden in out of way places for
you to discover.

As the narrative progresses, Hitman 2 dwells upon a pretty ho-hum device
to keep 47 in action. It seems like all the missions involve
eliminating whoever comes in contact with some black market weapons of
mass destruction. Yes, you got it boys and girls, the infamous (or
famous?) nuclear weapons smuggling comes to fore again. However, the
majority of the missions have twists to them, which makes the overall
plot less predictable. In fact, you could say the final few missions
will lead 47 to come full circle, metaphorically and geographically
speaking. Something from 47's own past, the dreaded confrontation with
his birthplace, also manages to work itself into the climax; very
clever, indeed.

On the Xbox, Hitman 2 doesn't suffer from any visual blemishes. The
orchestra and choral soundtrack makes a stunning, if not better,
transfer to the Xbox. I'm not sure what kinds of setups people play on
but my receiver in the living room is infinitely better than the A/V
setup attached to my PC. The art and architecture is a mixed bag. The
Soviet-style structures in Russia are hardly what you would call
aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, you have some visually
impressive indoor environs that are bright and colorful. The only thing
I thought was missing was abundant conversation amongst the indigenous
population. There simply isn't any to stumble upon in some cases with
guards being about as mute and mechanical as your cloned genetic
brothers. That's something where story-based first person shooters,
like No One Lives Forever, Medal of Honor and Deus Ex have the upper
hand.

Then there's the stealth motif. Hitman 2 has 47 doing a lot of things.
You can tell by the number of fluid animations (best represented by the
dead limping bodies you drag around) endowed on 47, that he can perform
many actions. When you combine many actions with a console controller,
you run into problems. A lot of times, the stealth is about pretending
to be like someone; a guard, a waiter, a postman in the first level.
That involves walking around with no weapons drawn and it will try your
patience, particularly because you know if you pull your guns out, those
guys giving you hassle by making you walk halfway across the block will
be dead in no more than two seconds. Even if you do manage to minimize
the collateral damage, there are few rewards other than bragging rights
on message forums. Instead of finishing the game in twenty hours, you
spent forty because you walked and didn't shoot for twice the amount of
time.

The frustration comes because your cover is sometimes blown for no
apparent reason or from unrealistically far away distances. On simpler
levels of difficulty, in addition to providing more saves (a great
decision by the developers), there should be a stealth indicator, not
unlike Looking Glass' excellent Thief series. Using that, you could
gauge whether your behavior, possessions, motion and appearances will
signal any alarms. No aids of that nature are to be found in this
title.

In spite of this, Hitman 2 makes great strides in improving every inch
of the original. This is a longer, deeper and more rewarding
experience. Still, 47's celebrity status means he can't perform the
simple café-window hits he used to pull off. Sometimes, I wished for
missions that weren't so long, targets not so elusive and objectives not
so important. In that sense, its cleverness proves too smart. However,
there's no denying that the morose theme of redemption in Hitman 2 makes
up for any shortcomings. You develop a strong attachment to 47, dare I
say, even some pity. And I hope the developers will one day run the
full course with this theme. The assassin, who always gets the last
laugh, may just well find his own comeuppance in the third installment
of the series. Hitman 2's obvious strengths guarantees there will be
another one.